HARDCORE: Storm MC(228)

His priority after Gigi and me was the club, and he spent most of his time there when we weren’t together. Still, he always came home for dinner. He’d found a way to balance his work and the rest of his life, though it took a little practice at first. Erica and Traci had shoved him out the door those first few months, ordering him to go home to be with his little family. Eventually, he hadn’t needed the help.



Not that we never visited. I wasn’t keen on Gigi spending too much time there, but we stopped in from time to time after school or on the weekends. I chatted with the girls while Gigi fleeced the guys in poker. They were her guardian angels, and I had no fear of them being a bad influence…so long as we left after an hour or two.



The biggest joy of my life, aside from being with Lance, was watching Gigi blossom. She’d always been smart, articulate, curious. The year without her mother had also given her confidence, new interests in learning piano and guitar, singing, dancing. She was a leader, too, like her father. When she ran for secretary of student council, she’d won—at only eight years old. The other kids were ten or eleven.



We weren’t married, Lance and I. We weren’t even engaged. Still, Gigi had been calling me “Mom” since somewhere around mid-summer. It just happened one day. Just came out of her mouth. She’d looked surprised at herself when she said it, and worried that I wouldn’t react well. All I did was smile to encourage her. I loved the way it sounded, even if it wasn’t technically true.



I thought about it as she climbed out of the car in front of the school to meet up with some friends. “See ya later, Mom!” She ran over to them, chatting excitedly, while I drove around to the parking lot. I might not have technically been her mother, but what was a mother? Rae was her mother—she’d borne her, anyway—but she’d handed her over to pay off a drug debt. I’d thrown myself over her to protect her. Which one of us was actually her mom?



I’d done more than that since moving her in with me. I’d taught her to cook, helped her with piano lessons, helped her with homework. Introduced her to my favorite old movies. Taught her to roller skate and ride a bike. Taken her to doctor’s appointments, dentist appointments, practices. I’d sat up with her the night she had that twenty-four-hour stomach bug, and again when she caught a bad cold over the winter. I thought about her the minute I woke up in the morning and just before I closed my eyes at night. If that wasn’t a mother, what was?



The one person who I’d thought would have the most difficulty with that adjustment was Lance, but he was every inch the father I’d dreamed he would be. He taught her other things. How to fix a motorcycle. How to fight back if anybody ever picked a fistfight—but only if they started it, he always reminded her. He let her read stories to him. He’d even let her fix his hair once, though I wasn’t supposed to be home from the store for an hour so he didn’t think I’d ever find out. I’d been sworn to secrecy.



We made a good team, balancing each other out, filling in for each other when one or the other just didn’t have it in them to read another story or listen to another poorly-played song on the piano. At the end of the day, we collapsed into bed together.



And it had only been a year. I couldn’t wait to see what the future held.





Epilogue II



Lance





“She’s gonna love it!” Erica and Traci were in awe. Erica held the box, tilting it from side to side, watching the way the diamonds caught the light.



“Are you sure?”



“Am I sure?” Erica glanced at me. “I’d cut a bitch for a ring like this. She’s lucky we all love her.”



I chuckled, and she handed the box back with a sigh. “She’s gonna be so surprised, too. She has no idea this is coming.”



“You’re sure? I mean, you talked to her yesterday, and she didn’t give you a clue she knew?”



“Nada,” Traci said, patting me on the back. “You’ll get the surprise you want.”



“Yeah, but will I get the answer I want?”



They looked at me like I had three heads. “You can’t be serious,” Erica muttered, glaring at me with her arms crossed.



“Hell yeah! I’m serious. You don’t know what it’s like for a guy, trying to ask a woman to marry him. I’m sick to my stomach over it.” I put the box in the pocket of my kutte. It felt a lot heavier than it really was.



“She loves you. She loves Gigi. Of course she’s gonna marry you. Shoot, she might marry you just so she can adopt Gigi.” Traci winked.